Handouts

Left: Newtowne original Ma. Capital (now Harvard Square) . Right: East Cambridge - Probate Court and Old Court House​Cambridge has a rich history that informs where we are today and what issues we need to think about in addressing the future!

May 5, 2019 At the conclusion of neighborhood group leaders' meeting the first discussions on this new organization and selection of core officers.

June 7, 2019 We agreed on a name - the Cambridge Citizen Coalition (CCC), completed our by-laws, acquired a domain name, and set up a website.

July 16, 2019 First CCC public mention on Cambridge InsideOut.

July 22, 2019 CCC received our IRS employer ID number and 501c4 status

August 18, 2019 CCC held our first formal meeting, drew up a plan for the future and put together a set of goals to reach it.

October 6, 2019 CCC held our first Cambridge City Council Candidate Forum ​

FOLLOWING A LEGACY:

Cambridge Citizens Coalition in part is following in the footsteps of the CAMBRIDGE CIVIC ASSOCIATION ​As we think forward about our goals, we recall the long standing impact of the Cambridge Civic Association on the local political scene. With thanks to Robert Winters for advancing this history in the Cambridge Civic Journal. rwinters.com/CCA/CCAorigin.htm

In 1945 the Cambridge Civic Association was launched to garner greater support for Plan E. As noted in the July 12, 1945 Cambridge Chronicle, "The CAMBRIDGE CIVIC ASSOCIATION will be a political association dedicated to promoting honest and efficient local government through the support of the city manager plan, working for and supporting competency in the office of city manager, working for and improving the school system of the city, and freeing the school system from all influences other than those which will provide the best possible education for the children of Cambridge, and seeking and supporting the candidacy of competent men and women in public office. It will urge competent persons to run for both the School Committee and the City Council, raise funds with which to finance their candidacies, and will actively campaign for their election. The committee will investigate the qualifications of everyone who seeks election to public office and will select and publish a slate of endorsed candidates and then seek to elect them. Throughout the year it intends to be constantly represented both before the School Committee and the City Council on all matters of public interest and to bring to bear upon public questions the concerted opinion of its membership." A Research Group was launched at the same time. Membership dues in each association were set at a minimum of $1 per annum, and every citizen of Cambridge who desires to participate was invited to apply for membership.

Robert Winters discusses the larger impact of CCA in a June 7, 2009 post in the Cambridge Civic Journal: "Once upon a time there was a civic organization in Cambridge known as the Cambridge Civic Association (CCA). It was formed in 1945 out of several organizations that had been existed through the 1930s and that had lobbied the state legislature to create the Plan E Charter option (1938) which featured a city manager form of government and proportional representation elections for city council and school committee. These reforms were central to model charter reform movements active in the United States from the early 1900s.

The central theme of the CCA in its early days was "good government" in the sense of being anti-patronage and for professionally managed local government. This changed with the introduction of rent control at the end of the 1960s after which the CCA shifted leftward and became permanently lashed to the mast of the rent control vessel. Though the CCA still exists on paper (I believe), it rapidly declined after the statewide abolition of rent control (late 1994) and essentially disappeared a decade later (early 2005). I bring up the ghost of the CCA today only to point out that when it was created it had some very admirable goals....

One founding principle of the CCA that fell into disuse over the years is listed above as #3: To encourage and support the candidacy of men and women seeking election to public office and to support intelligent, wholesome leadership in public affairs. Indeed, I can personally testify to the fact that in its dying years the only reason the CCA made endorsements at all was because the CCA-endorsed incumbents wanted the benefit of having an advertised CCA slate of candidates that would help secure their reelection. There was precious little effort to recruit new candidates or to support them.

Today, the benefits of incumbency are greater than ever. The cost of political campaigns have become absurdly high and most of the incumbents now have (City paid) staff who are inevitably political appointees who directly or indirectly assist in the reelection efforts of their bosses. The deck is increasingly stacked against challengers. Furthermore, the salary and benefits for elected councillors are now so sweet that it is unlikely that any of them would ever want to move on to another job. With this background in mind, I would like to encourage all Cambridge residents to help level the playing field by finding out about this year's challengers for seats on the Cambridge City Council and the Cambridge School Committee. This is not meant as a dig against any particular incumbent as much as an appeal to support the challengers in what is a difficult and laudable effort. Please see the Cambridge Candidate Pages for the current list of expected candidates. Then use your own judgment - don't expect me or anyone else to do it for you. Speaking of this year's municipal election, there are some activists who are now expending great effort to attack the City Manager and most of the current City Council."